By Jonathon Skinner @Skinna_3
Recent reports from an unnamed source have claimed that Wayne Rooney has been purchased by newly promoted club Crystal Palace for a fee of approximately £20 million, the deal should be announced within the next few days. This is just one of the many ridiculous transfer rumours that are released to the public each and everyday. Maybe it is not the most realistic one we have seen, but it is a rumour all the same. The media is filled with reporters milking everything they can out of a turned down contract or a statement from a club. Many people may express their opinion about how they hate transfer rumours but I think that they are wrong, and this is why.
Firstly, if there were no rumours then football would disappear off the map for three months. What do football panelists and journalists write about during the off-season? Transfers! And if there are no rumours, then there would be no football news. Interest in football would be gone for the off-season, after all, there is no football to watch apart from the occasional friendly or once every four years the World Cup qualifiers. Transfers are the reason that we follow football even after the games are over and without it we would actually have time to think about something that isn’t football (which come to think of it might not be a bad thing.)
Secondly, what about when they are actually right? Occasionally that transfer rumour turns out to be true, kind of like when Julio Cesar signed for QPR. A top goalkeeper signing for a, sorry QPR fans, bottom half club. So what defines a ridiculous rumour? Because I know many un-predictable transfers that have gone through. And without those rumours being made, we would never have heard about any of them.
So anti-rumour people, if you only want to hear about completed transfers then just don’t read the rumours. Because for quite a few people it is the reason they are still following football and after all, the really stupid ones are always a good laugh.